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Transport Secretary insists HS2 will be delivered on time in 2033

The government’s controversial £56Bn HS2 will open on time in 2033, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has insisted.

Following the confirmation of HS2 for North West and Yorkshire, Transport Secretary, Chris Grayling has said that the high-speed rail project will be completed on time, telling MPs in was “unrealistic” to say the link between London and northern England would not open in 2033.

The statement came as he confirmed the second phase of HS2 would go from Crewe to Manchester and the West Midlands to Leeds, with the first phase of HS2 due to open in 2026, which will see trains travelling at high speed between London and Birmingham before continuing on the existing West Coast Main Line.

A second Y shaped phase of HS2 will open in two stages.

The line from Birmingham to Crewe will launch in 2027, with the remaining construction – which includes a spur taking HS2 to a new station at Manchester airport – due to finish six years later.

My Grayling said the project “has taken a long time to get to this point, will take more years than I would wish to complete but we need it to be completed”.

“The idea that this is an unrealistic timetable to complete this project by 2033 seems to me to be a strange one.”

By providing new routes for inter-city services, HS2 will free up space on our existing railways for new commuters, regional and freight services while also taking lorries off our roads.”

Mr Grayling said support and compensation would be available to those affected by the project, as some of the routes are to affect communities .They can begin the process by contacting HS2 Ltd. The Department for Transport says compensation will be calculated at 110% of the value their home would have had without any plans for HS2.

Anyone living with 60m of the route is entitled to compensation, with the Department for Transport saying this could be extended under certain circumstances.

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